A quote by athlete Walter Payton

A quote from sports journalist Stuart Scott

"In football, as in life, the hits you don’t see coming are the ones that do the most damage."

A quote by Magic Johnson

"Celebrate the life you had, not the life you could've had."

A quote by Roger Federer

"There is no way around hard work. Embrace it."

A quote from Mark Cuban

"Talent without effort is wasted talent. And while effort is the one thing you can control in your life, applying that effort intelligently is next on the list."

'Reputation is what others think about you. What’s far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.'

- Tennis champion Billie Jean King (1943-present)

A quote by Lucille Ball

"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."

'Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You’ve got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from.'

- Golf great Jack Nicklaus (1940-present)

'You will never feel proud of your work if you find no joy within it; your best work is always joyful work.'

- Stevie Wonder (1950-present)

'It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.'

- Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali (1942–2016)

'A lion never roars after a kill.'

-Coaching legend Dean Smith (1931-2015)

A quote by Whitney Houston

"I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside."

The story behind the greatest outburst in sports history

It's a line that's still perplexing all these years later: "Who do you think you are? I am!" Those words were uttered by Pete Weber, an iconic bowler who was somewhere between John McEnroe and Happy Gilmore. This oral history from the Ringer provides some context for the bizarre insult and a backstory that turns what appears to be a non sequitur into a triumphant celebration.

"Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is 80 percent of being a successful hitter. The other 20 percent is just execution."

- Baseball star Hank Aaron (1934-2021)

'Mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it'

- Graham Cooke

'Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak—and speak in such a way that people will remember it.'

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

'Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.'

- Musician Tom Petty (1950–2017)

'I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.'

- Comedian Joan Rivers (1933-2014)

Nike’s slogan was inspired by a death row inmate’s last words

Advertising superstar Dan Wieden of legendary advertising agency Widen+Kennedy said he got inspiration for Nike’s “Just do it” from an inmate’s last words on death row. Wieden said the way the inmate talked about facing uncertainty inspired him.

'I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.'

- Modern nursing innovator Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

WNBA legend Sue Bird credits Title IX for her career

Few athletes are more decorated than Sue Bird, who’s won two NCAA championships, four WNBA titles, and five Olympic gold medals. In this interview, she explains how Title IX allowed her a successful career and why she believes the WNBA’s success is continuing to do the work that Title IX began.

'A good friend is like a four-leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have.'

- Irish Proverb

'I've never scored a goal in my life without getting a pass from someone else.'

- Soccer star Abby Wambach (1980-present)

The story of Vince Lombardi, coaching legend

Born in Brooklyn in 1913, Vince Lombardi is best known for his time as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967, when he led the team to five national championships over seven years. His all-out approach and inspiring one-liners have left an indelible mark on the game, causing the league to name the NFL's highest trophy—the one awarded to the Super Bowl winner—after him. Read up on the legend here.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Pelé is one of soccer's most famous players

He’s one of history’s most famous soccer players: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé. This piece follows the Brazilian soccer legend through various public appearances and interviews, highlighting the commercialization of his image and his own reflection on a life of stardom.

What it's like to win a Pulitzer

Four Pulitzer Prize winners share how winning the award has impacted their lives and journalism careers. The high-profile nature of the award tends to legitimize the author and grant them better access to jobs and opportunities, but it can also increase pressure on writers to meet the same standard of their award-winning journalism.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.